


Catching the Moment

by sangi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-24
Updated: 2007-08-24
Packaged: 2018-03-13 15:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3387638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sangi/pseuds/sangi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You know… my uncle has this really good booze around here.” Six times they down it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catching the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in 2007, posted again here for archival purposes.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Aang asks, eyeing the green bottle warily.

“Of course it is!” Boasts Sokka, holding the bottle (cactus juice) in his hands and waving it around wildly. “It’s vintage, Aang! You don’t get any better than this,” he bargains, leaning in too close for comfort to Aang’s face.

_ Looks like Sokka’s already had a bit,  _ he muses, before nodding his head and pulling out a chair for his friend.

The enthusiastic water tribe member quickly pulls two cups out from seemingly nowhere and pours them full. When Aang reaches for one, however, he won’t let him take one.

“Sokka, I thought the whole point of this was to get completely and totally high?” He looks pensive for a moment. “Or is it wasted?”

“Either way,” Sokka says, shaking his head at the young boy, “We have to make a toast!”

He hands Aang a cup (it was chipped in three places, he noted, and an ugly orange color) and holds his up in the air. “To victory!” He half-hiccups and smiles giddily, clunking his glass with Aang’s sloppily.

“To victory,” The Avatar repeats, with much less enthusiasm.

And then they down it all.

* * *

“Your uncle’s getting married today,” observes the ever so tactful Toph as she slides into the chair next to Zuko. “How does that make you feel?”

He grunts. “What are you now, my mind-healer?”

Toph laughs, her tinkling, boyish laugh that’s cute. Except Zuko thinks it’s annoying, as he’s told her many times since they joined up to defeat the Fire Lord. And now it was over, and Iroh was getting married to the old fortuneteller (the maid of honor was some girl with crazy hair). 

“Why not?” She says, and leans forward to rest her head on her palms. Her face transforms from amused to strict as she dictates, “How do you feel about that, Fire Lord Zuko? Does it make you feel sad?”

“Sad about my uncle getting married?” Zuko asks, confused.

She snorts now. “No, idiot, I meant about being in love with Water-girl over there.” She jerks her head in the general direction of Katara. Zuko stiffens.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

Toph laughs again, but this time it’s softer, more bittersweet. “Yeah, well, I’m in love with one too.” She can feel his disgusted (but also slightly heated) gaze on her. “Not that one, Scar-face. Got your mind in the gutter?” It’s a rhetorical question, and so he doesn’t answer.

After a long pause:

“You know… my uncle has this really good booze around here.”

She perks up. “Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, he probably stole it or something, but…” it trails off. They look at each other and Zuko dashes off, with Toph following his footsteps only a few feet behind him.

Less than five minutes later, they’re clinking glasses together.

“What are we making a toast to?” Toph questions, the glass still held out in front of her a ways.

“Love, of course.” Zuko laughs, and it’s not bitter at all.

“To love!” They chorus, Toph giggling.

And then they down it all.

* * *

 

“Hey, Katara,” Suki greets, standing in the doorway. “What are you doing?”

Katara smiles up from her seat on the floor. “Just writing a letter to Gran-Gran. She worries about me, you know, since we still travel sometimes, and about how we’re living in the Fire Nation, so,” she concludes, her smile noticeably smaller, “I write to her when I have the time.”

But now Suki is smiling. She sits down – the cushion on the floor is surprisingly comfortable. “Oh, well, Toph and Ty Lee wanted to know if you wanted to go on a picnic with them and Zuko.” At seeing Katara’s questioning look, she says, “I’m not going.”

Not even pausing to think about it, Katara states, “Neither am I. You know what happens when those two get together,” she adds, meaning Toph and Ty Lee.

Suki loudly laughed. “Yeah, yeah.” She clearly remembers one incident containing a large batch of fireworks and some rampant zoo animals.

There is a long dash of silence in which Katara finishes her letter and Suki pours sake for the both of them.

“Suki,” Katara says quite suddenly. “Say there were two people that weren’t supposed to love each other, but they do,” her face scrunches up, “Do you ever think we’ll – I mean, they’ll be able to be together?”

She blushes. “All hypothetical, of course.” Katara finishes weakly.

It takes a lot for Suki not to laugh at Katara’s obvious embarrassment. Instead, she puts on her most serious face and says, “Of course they will.”

The azure eyes of the other girl are slightly confused.

“You just have to have faith.” Suki assures.

“In what?” She takes a slow sip of her sake.

Suki follows her actions. “In general.” So they raise their cups – “To faith,” she says.

It begins with slow sips, but:

“… you and fire-boy, huh?”

And then they down it all.

 

* * *

“One more time!” The acrobat says, face flushed pink with excitement, to match her usual outfit. Mai shakes her head slowly at the bouncy girl.

“This would be the sixth time, Ty. You know you can’t hold your liquor. Give it up already,” The last part comes out as a half-annoyed groan, and Ty Lee sticks her tongue out at Mai.

“I can hold my liquor better than you, and I’ll prove it!” 

When Mai speaks, it’s weary. “What are we even drinking to?” She asks, hands still stubbornly in her pockets, not moving to pour another two glasses for them.

Ty Lee drunkenly smiles. “To sorrow!” It comes out as a half-yawn, half-hiccup. Mai eyes Ty Lee and comments on how she doesn’t look very sad.

The aforementioned drunk girl sniffs, not being able to pull off the haughty act. “Well, the water tribe boy proposed to his girlfriend, and so now there’s no chance of us being together.” Her face transforms into a moping look, with her bottom lip jutting out ridiculously. 

“I had no idea you were so attached,” Mai says dryly. 

“Attached to who?” Ty Lee asks. Mai’s blank stare meets the acrobat’s furrowed brow, and after a long moment, she sighs and hands the pink-clad girl a full glass from the low table seated behind her.

They’re still sitting like this five minutes later, with Ty Lee surprisingly not even drinking.

“…And then he kisses her, right in front of me! Does he have no respect for my feelings?” Ty Lee babbles on about the proposal.

Mai grunts noncommittally. “If I shove this down your throat-” she indicates the glass full of alcohol, “will you shut the hell up?”

“I’m talking here!”

The knife expert smirks. “Then I guess I win the bet,” she uncharacteristically teases. Ty Lee, is prepared with a comeback:

“So when the hell did you get over Zuko?”

Mai just glares, and says coldly, “To love,” and Ty Lee yells it loudly right after.

Then they down it all.

 

* * *

“I’m a fortuneteller, dear.” His wife says to him, smiling lightly. “Of course I can see their future. I’ve done it before, I’m doing it now, and I’ll do it again.”

Iroh is smiling, too, at the sight before them.

Zuko is trying to be discreet in his longing glances at an oblivious Katara, with Sokka sending suspicious glances at them, Suki tugging on his arm and trying to distract him, with Ty Lee and Toph off pulling another prank, and the Avatar and Mai watching with ill concealed humor. The old man can feel the tears pricking at the back of his eyes.

“Looks like your children have grown up, dead,” his now wife says, consolingly patting his shoulder. Then they hear a loud explosion somewhere in the background, and all the heads in the courtyard turn towards a large, towering column of smoke. 

“Not yet,” he mutters, rubbing his temples.

“Sake?” She offers as she stands up to leave.

Iroh shakes his head. “Something stronger.” She comes back into the courtyard minutes later, a tray of various alcohols in her hands. He pours a combination into a large mug, and then takes a hearty sip. 

His wife smiles cruelly. “I’ll bring the two girls to you later.”

Iroh raises his glass. “To irony,” he says dryly, and his wife murmurs her agreement.

And then they down it all.

* * *

 

“Why are you and Ty Lee so close, anyways?” Zuko asks, sitting next to Toph in one of the gardens, holding a glass filled with golden-colored liquid (only slightly intoxicated).

Toph sighs heavily. “We’re both heartbroken over Boomerang Boy.” Zuko inwardly grins. _What a dramatic drunk_.

“Since we’re getting personal-“ she stops here to hiccup, “-when are you going to make a move on Katara?” Zuko chokes on his drink. She heartily pats him on the back. “You know what? I dare you to go and… do something to her.” Her ending is a bit lame, but she’s practically wasted.

He angrily bangs his cup onto the table and stands up, a bit wobbly. He slowly marches over to Katara (he’s almost swaggering). By the time he reaches her and pokes her in the shoulder, he’s grinning madly. She stands up to meet him face-to-face.

“Katara,” he says. Katara’s nose crinkles as she smells alcohol.

“Are you drunk?” she asks suspiciously, eyeing the light smile on his face. Before she can make a move, he lurches forward and connects his lips with hers. After a moment, she responds, wrapping her arms around him eagerly.

Iroh watches the sight before him:

The kissing Katara and Zuko; Sokka gaping and spluttering at the two; Suki smiling her secret smile; Ty Lee’s wink and Mai’s quirked eyebrow; Aang’s stare and Toph’s quiet whisper of “What just happened?”

The old general smirks as his wife openly laughs. All the alcohol lays forgotten (most of it is knocked over and leaking onto the ground).

His chuckle is deep and throaty, and echoes through the clearing. “Ah, these children entrusted to me, how they grow!”


End file.
